Vanity presses got a bad name because they required a lot of money and hence a lot of vanity. A certain amount of vanity is required to blog (or to comment on someone's blog) but not all that much. Not a necessary condition, but perhaps a sufficient condition.

Any civil discussion between two educated people usually has value in it for listeners. We can pick up the memes and buzz words in current usage to see what interests academics until that changes. An idea can be planted like a seed to sprout later. But it is the real experts in fields of knowledge sometimes found on Blogs that add to our understandings of things...not so much these opinionated dilettantes showing off to one another.

bagoh20 said... I notice that the men, are on average not video material

This is true of about half of the men. To paraphrase a line from the Simpsons, they're Cornelius on "The Planet of Apes" ugly, not Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" ugly. They're ugly ugly, not TV ugly.

For this reason I treat blogging heads like the radio and listen to it while I work on something else. Not all the participants can hold my attention, though. They're too low energy and spend too much time fussing over trivial points. They are the type of people who I dread getting phone calls from.

The Robert Wright-Mickey Kaus programs are my favorite. Wright represents the shrill voice of doctrinaire liberalism, while Mickey is the easygoing guy who actually tries to make sense of things.

Some people would probably be surprised how much I enjoy being bested sometimes. Glenn Reynolds put me in my place a while back - and never posted a thing from me since - and all I was thinking is how important it is to have people willing to do so. I've been much "better" since he did so because he made me look at myself. (Ann's done it as well and, needless to say, no harm done.) As much as I'd like to think so, I ain't always right, and - after my ordeal - might go off the deep end sometimes, but - hey - we're all human, right?

Anyway, Deborah, I am honored to know you read my blog and happy to have made a fool of myself before you.

No you didn't, Bloggingheads, but what you did start is a high quality venue for civilized dialogue between two well-informed people who don't usually share the same views.

We don't see this on TV, in blog comments, and most certainly not in books. These days, people talk or write AT each other, not so much WITH each other.

Bob Wright is giving us another model of communicating, and to my mind, one that not only works, but works well.

Take the time to listen to the first ten minutes of the dialogue between McWhorter and Loury. It's eye opening. These guys didn't like each other five years ago, but through their Bloggingheads' conversations, each has found true respect for the other, and this respect shows itself in the quality and openness of their exchange over the next 35 minutes. You will feel like you are eavesdropping on a private phone call. Pure gold!

What you did start is a high quality venue for civilized dialogue between two well-informed people who don't usually share the same views.

Please. Are you seriously going to tell me that whiney-voiced Michelle-whatever-her-name-is is well-informed?

What you've got is a lot of people who can talk - which, like breathing, almost anyone can do - but, with the exception of Ann and Mickey, mopst aren't even remotely interesting conversationalists (How many of us have already declared we can't bear to listen?) and that especially goes for Robert Wright.

Rather than Bloggingheads Video, they should change the name to the Moderate Milquetoast Meet-up.